Making Treaty 4

Riddell Theatre, University of Regina

August 24, 2017

7:00 p.m.

After the Winter Workshop performance, the MT4 production team, cast, and crew worked hard all summer to prepare for the August show. The addition of dancers and musicians took the performance to a whole new level, with many new scenes and production elements.

The entire cast and crew were heartened by the words of Elder Noel Starblanket to open the show:

“44 years ago, I was part of the incorporating documents for the precursor of the First Nations University of Canada called the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College. This was our Dream. You will hear some of those dreams tonight, as these young people perform concepts of what they were brought here for. We dreamt about these young people, just as our forefathers dreamt about us, 144 years ago, when they signed the Treaty 4 document. So tonight, I admonish you to think about the stories that our people have encountered over the years. Some of it dark, some of it happy, and some of it hopeful. But it isn’t a story. So, I bid you welcome, as you remember, as you go forward, what it is we were brought in this world to do, in this history, a chapter in the development of Canada. You will hear concepts such as ‘education is our new buffalo,’ you will hear concepts of the dark side, you will hear concepts of the hope. You will hear concepts of what it is our ancestors called for, of the brotherhood and kinship that needs to happen in ways for Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people. In order to do that, we must learn the history of where we have come, and where we are, and where we hope to go. That’s what this story is about.”